Quentin Tarantino thought so highly of this US-Spanish coproduction that he granted a cameo appearance in his spaghetti western homage Django Unchained (2012) to its star, Russ Tamblyn, and billed the Hollywood veteran and Academy Award nominee as Son of a Gunfighter (1965). A standard prairie revenge tale dressed up with expansive Madrid locations and shot in CinemaScope (US distributor MGM's last film presented in this widescreen gauge), Son of a Gunfighter finds Tamblyn's restless, rootless hired gun taking up the cause of wealthy landowner Fernando Rey, whose border territory is overrun by both Yankee outlaws and Mexican bandits. Less interested in land rights than he is in finding the man (James Philbrook, star of Django... a Bullet for You [1969]) who killed his mother, Tamblyn's white hot hatred is cooled considerably by the affections of Rey's daughter, Maria Granada... but not even love can deflect the kill shot of destiny. The film's title (in Spanish, El hijo de pistolero) telegraphs the big reveal (John Sturges' Backlash had told a similar story in 1956) but Son of a Gunfighter earns its keep in the gorgeous cinematography of Miguel Berenguer (King of Kings, 1961) and in the appearance of several Italian and Spanish actors who go on to be staples of the subgenre of Euro-westerns.

By Richard Harland Smith